May 22, 2012

North German Rd1 wins for Schröder & Herniksen

The first round of the North German Championship took place in Hamburg under perfect weather conditions with 35 racers in attendance. For Team Shepherd it was a great weekend with victories in the 1/8th scale expert class as well as in the 1/10th scale class. In the 1/8th scale class it was was a close fight between the 2011 Euro B finalists Lars Hoppe and Timo Schröder, both driving with a Shepherd Velox V8 “eleven”. At the start of the final Hoppe’s engine stalled and Schröder took over the lead. But lap by lap Hoppe closed the gap and took over the lead after some minutes. Unfortunately he suffered again some problems and dropped back to 5th position by the middle of the race. Again Hoppe caught up brilliantly but the gap to Schröder was too big this time. He managed to get back to second position and crossed the finishing line one lap behind Schröder who drove a flawless race.

Continue reading the report here


May 22, 2012

Kimbrow & Swauger win KO Propo USA GP

This past weekend was the 5th Annual KO Propo America Nitro Grand Prix in Gardena, CA.  The race facility was hosted by the GLARCC (Greater Los Angeles RC Club) with drivers from the California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, Florida, New York and Connecticut in attendance for the great Southern California weather. 138 entries in total with classes for 1/10th Open, 1/8th Open, 1/8th Sportsman and 1/5th, the largest class was the 1/8th Open with mains going down to the G Main. Close competition all weekend for all classes resulted in mostly everyone having a great time. 1/10th Open and 1/8th Open TQ would be set by Mike Swauger, 1/5th TQ by Brian Thomas and 1/8th Sportsman by Kenny Jones.

View the final results here


May 21, 2012

2012 Nitro-West-Masters – Announcement

The Nitro-West-Masters will start into its fourth season in the coming weekend. Five races are scheduled in 2012 for this growing championship in Western Germany, which has attracted 93 nitro racers in 2011. Fair racing, long finals, stable rules and a friendly atmosphere are the key points of the Nitro-West-Masters. Three classes are offered, 1/8 scale nitro on-road (VG8), 1/10 scale nitro on-road (VG10) and 1/8 scale nitro on-road Hobby-Cup (HC8) with standard engines from Novarossi or Sonic. The race format includes three heats of seven minutes with the three best laps to count and finals as long as possible, depending on number of participants and weather. Tyre additives are prohibited. Drivers also from foreign countries are welcome, a license isn’t mandatory, in that case an additional insurance fee is to be paid.

Continue reading the announcement


May 21, 2012

Yannick Aigoin wins French EFRA GP

The EFRA GP of Reims took place last weekend at the northern French town and attracted a rather low 66 drivers. With the weather cooperating and sunshine all weekend it was Associated driver Yannick Aigoin that took the pole position ahead of Xray driver Renaud Savoya in 2nd and Agama racer Jerome Sartel in 3rd. The first non French driver was Spaniard Borja Hernandez with the LRP car in 4th. In the semis it was business as usual for the two former European Champions with Aigoin and Savoya winning their respective finals but it was Yannick who would start from pole in the hour long A-main. As the race started Aigoin would cement his dominance on the event by taking the lead and proceeding to pull out an advantage. German Mugen driver Daniel Reckward moved passed Savoya around the 10 minute mark and would maintain in 2nd position for the remainder of the race. Near the half way point Savoya hit trouble and would drop to the back of the pack. This moved Borja Hernandez to 3rd and he would hold on to the final podium position until the final minutes of the race when Sartel would come through to take the spot and complete the podium behind Reckward in 2nd and winner Yannick Aigoin.

Source: Automodelisme [automodelisme.com]


May 20, 2012

Tim Wood takes Rd3 of BRCA 1/8th series

The third round of the 2012 BRCA 1/8th scale national championship was hosted by the Adur club, situated at Shoreham recreation ground to the west of Brighton last weekend. The circuit is the smallest on the calendar and although some people have reservations about its size, the grip levels and smoothness makes it one of the best the country can currently offer. The track is very technical and so requires a good car setup with plenty of low speed steering and rotation to lap consistently below the 14 second bracket. With this track being around 5 years old, the tarmac is now a shade of grey and when the grip is put down, a black line is clearly generated which is fantastic to see.

Continue reading the report here


May 18, 2012

Bruno Coelho dominates Rd2 in Portugal

Last weekend the 2nd round of the Portuguese Nationals for 1/8th and 1/10th scale were held at the Maia track close to Oporto. Mugen/Novarossi driver Bruno Coelho continued on his preparation for this year’s 1/8th Euros in his country by dominating qualifying in this and the 1/10th scale class each by a margin of two laps. In the finals it was again Bruno who easily took the win in 1/8th scale by 10 laps ahead of the Xray pairing of Paulo Mota and Claudio Souto. In the 1/10th scale class Bruno won by a 4 lap margin in front of Pedro Sousa in 2nd and Mario Miranda in 3rd.

View the 1/10th podium here


May 17, 2012

Óscar Cabezas wins Spanish Nationals Rd2

The second round of Spanish 1/8 On-Road Nationals was held at the Elche track near Alicante managed by Club Carsol. It was a hard race, with temperatures over 35ºC, 50ºC on the asphalt and a high relative humidity making it a hard test for engines and fuel. The Elche track is small, but really fast and so lap times are just about 12 seconds. Oscar Cabezas (Motonica / Novarossi / Merlin Fuel) TQ’d and set a new track record. After winning the semi-final, Cabezas kept the first place during almost 30 minutes, closely followed by Sergio Montensinos, who managed to take the first place in the tire change. Oscar again took the first place after a few laps and a few laps later Montesinos had a glow plug failure, and Cabezas, who was driving with no brakes after a crash with Montesinos could set a comfortable and safe pace to finish the race in first position.

View the final results here


May 17, 2012

Tomi Salonen wins Rd1 of Finnish Nationals

Round one of the Finnish Offroad Nationals was held in Turku under tricky conditions. In the morning they had some rain and heavy wind and in the afternoon weather cleared up, but the wind got stronger which made driving over the jumps very challenging. After 3 rounds of Qualifying Tomi Salonen was 1st, followed by August Poutiainen and Ari Heinonen. Following the semi-finals the top six was Salonen followed by Poutiainen, Heinonen, Leino, Ahoniemi and Siltanen. In the A-final we saw a tight battle between Salonen and Poutiainen, the pair managing to pull away from the rest of the field. After 13 minutes Poutiainen was leading by several seconds until he had a crash with another car and broke his Xray and was forced to retire. Mugen/Novarossi driver Salonen took the lead and controlled the rest of the final easily. Many drivers suffered from flame outs and crashes during the hard 45 minute windy final.

View the final results here